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The urban summer event Lasipalatsi Design Markets & Fashion Film Festival brings fresh design, fashionable movies and summery vibes in the middle of Helsinki for five days in the beginning of August 1-5, 2012. Organised for the fourth time, Lasipalatsi Design Markets hosts 38 brands which are represented by interesting up-and-coming designers at the Lasipalatsi square. Their unique pieces – clothes, accessories, jewellery and homeware are all for sale during the event.
Next week kicks off the annual Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, otherwise known as DocPoint. Established in 2001, DocPoint is the largest documentary film festival in the Nordic countries and in Finland it’s the only festival solely dedicated to documentary films. Each year the festival offers both a national and an international selection of the best new films and celebrated classics, along with a special selection just for children. And the good news for the English speaking crowd is that the majority of films are either in English or are subtitled in English.
An elegant split-screen romance recently won Nokia's short film contest with video site Vimeo, highlighting the growing creative potential of mobile phones as well as the quality of its own devices...
According to Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, it was Finnish sailors who brought tango to South America when they landed at Buenos Aires in the 19th century. "The Finns are only happy when they are unhappy," he explained. Now German director Vivianne Blumenschein has decided to find out whether he is right, filming three Argentine musicians researching Finnish tango in Cheek to Cheek - Argentines Discover the Finnish Tango.
Produced by Germany's Gebrueder Beetz with Finland's Illume and Sweden's Eden Film, the documentary, which includes interviews with Finnish tango masters Allan, Reijo Taipale and MA Numminen has received €90,000 from Eurimages.
Watch the whole film at
sm2011.flatlightfilms.com
Filmed with Nokia N8 smart phones
More info: fsa.fi
Making of still-photos by Kalle Tarkiainen / slammer.fi
According to Variety.com, NIGHTWISH's much-anticipated musical "Imaginarium" is one of the projects which have received grants from the Finnish government institution called the Finnish Film Foundation.
The film was one of the most screened documentaries at international film festivals in 2008. The film has raised much discussion around the topic, and many human rights organizations as well as governments have started examining their own actions in relation to these issues.
The selection of 47 recent Finnish documentaries is full of inspired works that will change the way you think about the form and make every typical issue-oriented American doc seem desperately boring in comparison. Some are fascinating illustrations of human life, completely unconcerned with the filmmaker/narrator driven style of a Michael Moore or a Davis Guggenheim. Others are almost miraculous in their very existence, built from footage that attests to the extraordinary devotion of documentarians. It’s an exciting line-up that attests to the brilliant artistic potential of documentary filmmaking. I’ve listed five films you should make sure not to miss, after the jump:
The Global Search for Education
Finnish teachers talk with Harvard professor Tony Wagner in The Finland Phenomenon
“The Finns had a crisis,” life-long educator, best-selling author, and Harvard professor Tony Wagner explains as we discuss his new film, The Finland Phenomenon, made with acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Bob Compton. “Their economy was failing. Their education system was poor. They knew that to grow their economy, they had to transform their educational system.” Starting with the principle that cooperation is a key pillar of success, the Finns revised their educational framework.
Shot in an intrusive, docudrama style, with no soundtrack and no mood-setting vistas, The Painting Sellers is very much in line with the Dogma 95 movement...
Not everyone can attend the Midnight Sun Film Festival, the northernmost and some claim most cinephilic of fests, which makes Midnight Sun co-founder Peter van Bagh's nearly five-hour doc on the Finnish event's 25-year history, "Sodankyla Forever," as useful as it is valuable. Amounting to a declaration of principles on cinema's greatness and featuring a massive roster of world-class directors in public conversation, pic best captures a view of the artform that's wedged between classical and mainstream arthouse, and dominated by men. Fest tour should be epic.
This exquisitely shot film examines the construction of the Onkalo facility in Finland, a cutting-edge project (scheduled for completion in 2100!) in which radioactive waste will fill underground tunnels that will be sealed off and purportedly off-limits to humans for eons...
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One year in the life of a family of reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland reveals an intricate bond between man and nature. ABOUT THIS PROJECT To my friends, old and new, As many of you know, I have spent the last year living with and filming a family of reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland, well above the Arctic Circle near the small town of Salla. In November 2011, I completed the last of six shoots and began editing a documentary about their amazing lives called AATSINKI. Making this film has been a labor of love for me, but I’ve gone as far as I can on my own – now I need your help... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1087720796/aatsinki-the-story-of-arctic-cowboys
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's new horror thriller 'The Skin I Live In' has been booked as the opening flick of the 24th Helsinki International Film Festival...
Until now, all the haughty talk of a full-length feature film was just that. A lot of talk. And perhaps a clever media strategy too.
Rovio, the Finnish game developer behind Angry Birds– the mobile game about vengeful birds and greedy pigs that has spread, like bird flu, from Helsinki to the iPhone, Android, iPad, Web and soon, to Facebook– has three choice topics when speaking to the media.
Duration: 59min.
Director: Ywe Jalander
The Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) is one of the great figures of modern architecture, ranked alongside Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. This film analyses Aalto’s uniquely successful resolution of the demands and possibilities created by new technology and construction materials with the need to make his buildings sympathetic both to their users and to their natural surroundings. His inventive use of timber in particular represents both a reference to the forest landscape of Finland and a building material that is ‘warm’ and extremely adaptable. Filmed in Finland, Italy, Germany and the USA, this documentary shows how the Finnish natural environment and art traditions were essential elements in Aalto’s pioneering harmonization of technology and nature.
Finnish box office successes Lapland Odyssey (original title Napapiirin Sankarit) and Princess (Prinsessa) picked up awards at the Festroia International Film Festival in Portugal last weekend. The movies are no strangers to international recognition.
“Reindeerspotting: Escape From Santaland.” It’s the kind of doc that I can’t entirely get behind ethically, at least as far as the questions I still have about the making of the film. But I can’t help but recommend it very highly, in large part because of those questions it leaves you with. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now. For me, it’s this year’s “The Red Chapel” as far as I want to both love and hate it at the same time.
MANHATTAN — New Yorkers will get a peek at how the world looks above the Arctic Circle when a Finnish documentary film festival opens on Wednesday.
DocPoint NYC, running through June 13 at locations including the Museum of Modern Art, Scandinavia House and 92YTribeca, celebrates the country's accomplishments in the world of narrative nonfiction.
The Finnish premiere of the action thriller Hanna is to be held in the northern town of Kuusamo, where parts of the the film were shot in the late winter of 2010. The start of the film is set in northern Finland.
Finnish fans of Harry Potter will get to watch the last movie in the series among the very first audiences worldwide, ahead of Great Britain and the US.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 arrives in Finnish cinemas in the early hours of July 13.
While the film’s premiere is in the UK on July 7, the wider British audiences will not get to see it until July 15, the same date as the US.
Plot/Synopsis:
The first part of Aki Kaurismäki’s “Finland trilogy” tackles the subject of unemployment. Ilona works as a head waiter at restaurant Dubrovnik, an old-fashioned place with a loyal but aging clientele. Times are changing, however, the restaurant gets repossessed by the bank and Ilona is left unemployed. At the same time Ilona’s husband, Lauri, also loses his job as a streetcar driver after coming up short in a card draw, and the couple’s life turns into a series of humiliations. Nevertheless, they aren’t ready to give up easily, and eventually the sun does come out from behind the clouds.
MoMA's film exhibitions for June include a look at the influence of melodrama and soap opera on cinema, as well as some of Finland's best documentaries.
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